LyondellBasell is considering debottlenecking its crackers at two US sites

May 04/2011

(ICIS) -- LyondellBasell is considering
debottlenecking its crackers at Channelview and La Porte, Texas, which could add
at least 500m lb/year (227,000 tonnes/year) of ethane-based ethylene capacity,
chief executive Jim Gallogly said on Monday. The projects are still in early
engineering stages, Gallogly said during an earnings conference call.

LyondellBasell has two crackers in Channelview, Texas, and one in La
Porte, Texas. Gallogly did not specify if the company would debottleneck both
Channelview crackers or just one.

LyondellBasell is also studying whether it will build a cracker, Gallogly
said. Such a project is in the study phase, and the company has not announced
plans to actually build one.

If LyondellBasell were to build a cracker, it would do with another
company, a concept that Gallogly called a condo cracker.